EC Nursing and Healthcare

Quality health care services require adequate collaboration among the array of different health professionals as no one single professional group can achieve this goal. Local government is the third tier of government which serves as the base for primary health care activities. There is a wide spectrum of activities rendered by different health workers in the local government system. The frontline health workers in this context include nurses, community health workers, environmental health officers, pharmacy technicians, laboratory assistants. The purpose of this study was to assess interprofessional collaboration between nurses and other health professionals in selected primary health centres in Jos metropolis. The study was motivated by the fact that the issue is a contemporary one. By implication, if interprofessional collaboration is well managed, a monumental progress would be achieved at the grassroot level which will find its expression in the quality of health services rendered. The research objectives entailed assessing the power relations between nurses and others; the level of collaboration; and the factors that impact on collaboration. The need to know how these issues of collaboration are negotiated became imperative as the existing literature does not reveal this. Hence, the setting of the study was Jos metropolis. Some primary health centres were selected through the multistage sampling approach. The nurses and other health workers in these selected centres served as respondents. The instrument used to elicit responses was questionnaire. The items therein covered all the strands that constituted the purpose of the study. The respondents were accessed by using convenience sampling technique. One hundred and fifty-three copies of questionnaire were distributed, 150 copies were retrieved thus creating 98% response rate. Research ethics such as informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality and anonymity were strictly adhered to. Data collected was analysed using frequent counts and percentages. Findings of the study reveal that there is high level of collaboration between nurses and other health workers as indicted by the items measuring collaboration while findings on power relations between the two groups showed that there is shared administrative role, and that role is based on professional hierarchy (Nurses, 95.5%, others, 94%), There was also a consensus on the fact that power relationship is influenced by the position they occupy (Nurses, 90.9%, others, 95%). On the factors affecting interprofessional collaboration, the findings showed that lack of interprofessional collaboration education, difference in education level affect collaboration, professional background, and huge gap in remuneration affect collaboration while both differed on the activities of union leaders as a factor as other professional groups (66%) agreed to the influence of union leaders on collaboration while nurses (36.4%) concurred.

Keywords: Assessment; Interprofessional; Collaboration; Nurses; Health Professionals

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